Mr. Parker: ParkerVision started out developing technology for video applications. We initially were doing tracking technology for cameras to track subjects without any camera operator, and those cameras evolved into use for distance education and ultimately into broadcast television studios. The technology utilized radio frequency as part of the mechanism that enabled the tracking of the subject. Ultimately, we decided to evolve the wireless technology application for use in communications - mobile handsets and other mobile phone-type applications. Several years ago, we sold the video technology part of our business to Thomson, the electronic concern in France which has a large presence in the television broadcast equipment space. Currently, we are focusing exclusively on developing our wireless technology, making it appropriate for incorporation into mobile handsets. This is where we are today and where the company is beginning to gain traction.
TWST: From your perspective, what are market dynamics like today? How have your customers and users changed?
Mr. Parker: Currently, mobile handsets are the largest single consumer electronics device on a yearly unit sales basis. That device has evolved quite a long way from where it started, which was a voice-only device, to now incorporate features that provide Internet connectivity, and all the applications that enable consumers to do remote and mobile e-mail, archiving pictures and the other wonderful things that the Internet today will allow. In order to make a practical mobile device to really utilize the power of the Internet, the wireless networks evolved to ever-more complex transmit-and-receive protocols, which are much more power consuming and less efficient than the original voice-only networks that were deployed. They also are deployed under a variety of different international standards. They don't just use one standard; there are multiple telephone standards that are deployed. So mobile phones today have started to incorporate these different standards, which incorporate more advanced protocols, and they have become a lot more inefficient in their use of the battery than their original predecessors that were doing voice-only applications. Our customers, which are the handset companies, the chipset companies who provide semiconductors to the handset companies, and their customers, who are the network carriers and ultimately the consumer who uses these devices, are looking for equipment that enable longer talk times, longer battery life and faster network data protocols. That's exactly where our technology is focused.
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